Ex-India MP Mahua Moitra targeted with false 'sex' remarks claim
- Published on May 10, 2024 at 10:15
- 3 min read
- By Asma HAFIZ, AFP India
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The false claim was shared on Facebook post on April 18, 2024 by a user in West Bengal's capital Kolkata.
The post featured a clip -- viewed more than 2.2 million times -- which showed Moitra being interviewed in an open-top vehicle.
"What's your source of energy?" a man offscreen could be heard asking.
"Eggs, eggs," she responded drawing laughter from the people around.
However, the Facebook post's caption to the clip said: "Sex is the source of my energy."
Moitra, a member of the Trinamool Congress that rules West Bengal and a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was expelled from parliament in December 2023 over bribery allegations, The Hindu newspaper reported.
She has denied the accusations and is aiming to regain her former seat in the Lok Sabha -- the lower house of India's legislature -- in the country's six-week general election that began April 19.
The clip was also shared with a similar claim elsewhere on Facebook here and here as well as on social media site X.
Comments to the posts indicated that while some social media users correctly heard Moitra say "eggs", others were misled.
"Shameless," one wrote.
"Is she saying this..really..can one be sooo shameless," said another.
Misconstrued statement
A Google reverse image search of a keyframe from the clip found a longer version uploaded on the official YouTube channel of the English-language online platform News The Truth on April 13, 2024 (archived link).
The video's title read: "'I am Unapologetic': TMC Mahua Moitra in Conversation with Tamal Saha".
The clip corresponds from the 02:35 mark of the longer video (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip in false posts (left) and the video uploaded on the YouTube channel of News The Truth (right):
Tamal Saha, the reporter who interviewed Moitra, refuted the claim in a post on X on April 18 (archived link).
His post read in part:"Let me clarify, since this is my interview. I asked @MahuaMoitra: What's your source of energy in the morning. Mahua Moitra replied : EGGS."
"People will hear what they want to hear. It speaks volumes about their mentality," Saha told AFP on April 19.
He also shared raw footage from the interview, which AFP reviewed and found Moitra indeed said "eggs, eggs" in response to Saha's question.
AFP has repeatedly debunked misinformation about India's general election here, here and here.
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